Convertible billiard-table.



No. 661,928. Patented Nov. I3, I900.

o. F. BARTEL. CONVERTIBLE BILLIARD TABLE.

(Application filed June 11, 1900.) O B J 2 Sheets-Sheet I. I

4:- I B I Patented Nov. l3, I900;

0. F. BARTEL. CONVERTIBLE BILLIABD TABLE.

(Application filed June 11,, 1.900.)

2 Sheets-Sheet 2'.

(No Model.)

u I I ATTORNEY THE uomus rz'rzws w, PHOTO LITHO.. WASHINGTON, u. c.

1 NITFD Tarts OTTO F. BARTEL, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

CONVERTIBLE BlLLlARD-TABLE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 661,928, dated November 13, 1900.

Application filed June 11, 1900. Serial No. 19,836. (No model.)

To all whom it nuty concern.-

Be it known that I, OTTO F. BARTEL, of Chicago, Cook county, State of Illinois, have invented new and useful Improvements in Convertible Billiard-Tables; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification.

My invention relates to what are known as convertible tables, very commonly called combined carom and pool tables, and has for its object to adapt a convertible table, such as heretofore devised and patented to me on the 22d of May, 1900, No. 650,085, to the uses of what are called in pool-tables concealed ball-conduits and to that form of pool-table in which the connection between the pocket proper and one end of such conduit is effected through the medium of a cupshaped (usually thick leather) ball-receiver, the outer upper end of which is connected with the pocket-iron and the lower inner end of which leads into the contiguous end of the concealed ball-conduit-as illustrated, for instance, in United States Patent No. 559,790 to P. M. Cunningham. In the convertible table made the subject of my said patent the pockets are of the reticulate style, and the holed balls remain in the pockets until removed therefrom by hand, and, as set forth in said patent, the combination and arrangement of parts are such that in transforming the table from a pool to a carom table the irons of the two side pockets are simply turned or swung downwardly on their pivotal attachments to the side rails to permit the placement in position of the two long cushion-rails that are substituted for the four shorter (pocket-table) rails. This construction is perfectly operative in a table such as shown and described in my said patent; but in another species of pocket-table now much used (especially in public rooms) the table is provided with concealed ball-conduits which conduct all the holed balls from-all the (six) pockets to a receptacle or receiver arranged beneath the foot end of the table-body, from which they are all removed at once at the end of each game, and in this species of pocket-table in its most im proved and acceptable form cupshaped leather devices form fixed or rigid connections between the pocket-irons of the several pockets and the outer ends of the ball-conduits combined, respectively, with said pockets, as set forth in the United States patent hereinbefore referred to-No. 559,790. To adapt the main features of construction of the table patented to me as above noted to this last-mentioned species of pockettable I have devised the novel construction for which I now seek another patent, which I will now proceed to fully describe by reference to the accompanying drawings in order that those skilled in the art may be enabled to make and use convertible tables embodying, in addition to my patented invention, the improvement made the subject-matter of this application.

Inasmuch as my present improvement relates wholly to the construction of the sidepocket devices and the cushion-rail parts contiguous thereto it is only necessary in order to illustrate my invention that these portions of a convertible table be shown.

In the drawings, Figure l is a top view of part of a table with its parts set or adjusted to operate as a pocket-table and embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same. Fig. 3 is a vertical section of the same in a plane indicated by the dotted line w x at Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a similar section, but with the cushion-rails removed and the pocketiron turned down into the position or condition necessary to permit the application of a side carom cushion-rail in place of the two removed pocket cushion-rails. Fig. 5 is a top view with the parts in the condition shown in section at Fig. 4. Fig. 6 is a top view of the table parts seen at Fig. 5, but with a side carom cushion-rail added thereto and secured in its working condition.

In the several figures the same part will be found always designated by the same letter of reference.

A is one of the side bed-rails; B, the bed, to the edges of which the bed-rails are secured, and D one of the broad rails of a table embodying my invention.

D D are two metallic pocket-iron holders securely fastened, as shown, to the bed-rail A and to which the opposite ends of the side pocket iron E are respectively connected pivotall y by the pivots or trunnions c 6, (see Fig. 5,) all the parts so far alluded to being made and combined in substantially the manner set forth in my said patent. Instead, however, of having combiner] with the oscillatory or tilting pocket-iron E an ordinary reticulated pocket, as set forth in my said patent, the table herein shown and described is provided with concealed ball-conduits and in place of having the usual pockets is differently constructed from my said patented table (so far as the side-pocket portions of the table are concerned) in the particulars which I will now explain.

From within the outer end portion of a sidepocket hall conduit (not shown) projects through an opening cut in the broad rail D in a well-known manner a leather cup-shaped ball-receiver G, which is made and arranged and which operates substantially as set forth in the United States patent to Cunningham, hereinbefore mentioned, and in the manner now known to those skilled in the art; but instead of the outer upper edge of the cupshaped part of this ball-receiver G being secured to the leathering of an ordinary pooltable pocket-iron, as shown in the Ounningham patent and as seen in concealed ballconduit pool-tables now extensively in use, there is no fixed or rigid connection between either the top edge or any other part of this receiver G and the pocket-iron E of the table herein shown; but the leather or leathering of pocket-iron E is extended down much lower than in the case of my said patented table and low enough to project down within and some distancesay an inch or more below the top edge of the receiver G (see Fig. 3) when the parts of the table are set or arranged, as seen at Figs. 1, 2, and 3, for use as a pocket-table, and combined with the said pendent pocket-iron leather F and the said ball-receiver G is a coupling-strap I, (made, preferably, of leather,) the upper end of which is fastened to the central upper part of leather F and the lower end of which is secured to the inner surface of G, as clearly shown, (see Figs. 3 and 4,) and so that when the oscillatory pocket-iron E is in the condition shown at Fig. 3 the cup-shaped portion of the ballreceiver will be firmly sustained vertically at its outer portion by said strap I from the rigid pocket-iron E, While at the same time the latter, with its leathering and the attached strap I, may be easily lowered orturned down into the condition seen at Fig. 4 whenever the pocket devices are to be thrown into disuse by the removal of the two side-pocket cushion-rails H II, as seen at Figs. at and 5, and the substitution therefor of the one carom cushion-rail J, as shown at Fig. 6.

As under the novel construction shown and so far described the usual fringe ornament cannot well be attached to the pocket-iron leather, as it is in the case of my said patented table, and as without some fringe to partially cover or hide from view the long depending leather F and the detached and exposed upper edge of the ball-receiver G the appearance of the table (in side view) would be rather unsightly, I have devised a means of ornamentaiion, so to speak, or means by which the usual appearance of the approved pockettable (and that of my said patented table) is attained to. I have provided a bail-like device L, which in the case shown is simply a bent wire that is covered with leather or is leathered after the fashion of leathering an ordinary pocket-iron and to the slightlydepending edge of which leathering is secured the upper edge of a fringe O, that hangs down in front of and covers over or hides from view the upper edge of the leather ball-receiver G and also the greater part of the long depending leather F of the pocketiron. This bail or fringe-holder L has its opposite bent end portions (see Figs. 1 and 2) secured to the outer side of the bed-rail, as shown, by means of metallic fasteners Z Z, and it is shaped, it will be seen, so that while it sets as close to the outer surface of the leathered pocket-iron it will permit the latter to pass by it when the latter is swung down from the position shown at Fig. 3 to that seen at Fig. 4, and it will be understood that by reason of the depending leather F, secured to the pocket-iron, extending down well below the upper edge of the receiver G and into the latter, and the strong coupling-strap I being securely attached at its upper end to the leather F and at its lower end to the interior of receiver G, all as shown, the holed balls (no matter how forcibly holed) are after striking the under side of the leathered pocket-iron (by which they are deflected) received and guided downward by the coupled leather F and receiver G and are finally by the latter delivered into the concealed ballconduit of the table as effectually and noiselessly as in the case of a pocket-table of the construction now in use and set forth in the Cunningham patent.

When the table is transformed from a pocket to a carom-table by the adjustment of the side-pocket iron to the position shown at Figs. 4 and 5 and the placement in working position of the side carom-rail, as seen at Fig. 6, it is substantially identical (as to the side-pocket portion) with my said patented table, except as to the presence in place of the net pocket of the ball-receiver G, the deeper leathering F, the fringe-holder and fringe L and O, the coupler-strap I, and slight additional or further cut-outs in the under side or surface of the cushion-rails for the accommodation of the end portions of said fringeholder.

Of course the novel construction shown and described is subject to more or less more modification without departing from the invention, by which I am enabled to produce a convertible table of the type set forth in my said patent, but provided with concealed ball-conduits connecting (in the most approved man- LII ner) by means of ball-receivers with side pockels of the table.

Having now so fully described my present invention that those skilled in the art can make and use convertible tables embodying the same either in the precise form shown or under some mere modification of the invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a convertible table of the type shown and described, the combination, with a ballreceiver; and the tilting, or oscillatory,pocketiron, of a depending leathering secured to the latter and extending down Within, the outer end of the former; and a flexible connection between the pocket-iron and the ball-receiver all substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

2. In a convertible table of the type shown and described, the combination,with the ballreceptacle; the oscillatory side-pocket iron? and the depending leathering of the latter extending down into the former, of a fringeholder and attached fringe; the Whole arranged and operating together substantially 25 

